A Wanaka family are set to create some happier memories than those of their recent holiday in Queensland that saw their five-year-old boy hospitalised for two weeks with third-degree burns from a hot metal seat at a theme park.
Seven Sharp told the Sloan family tonight that the programme had contacted Flight Centre, which really wanted to help. The travel agency offered the family a travel package to the value of $7000.
Five-year-old Harry's accident at Queensland's Aussie World, and his subsequent spell in hospital in Dunedin for plastic surgery, put a real dampener on a family trip that was meant to cheer everyone up. They scraped together some savings for the trip after Harry's dad, Andrew Sloan, was diagnosed with brain cancer.
"After Andrew's treatment we thought right, we need to live life and make memories," said Cherie Sloan, Harry's mum.
She recounted how at Aussie World, Harry had sat down on a waiting platform made of stainless steel.
"Harry said, 'My bottom hurts.' Andrew pulled his shorts back and the skin on his bottom had literally melted."
Back home at Lake Hawea near Wanaka, Ms Sloan said, she sent Aussie World a letter to let them know that Harry had been admitted to hospital in Dunedin.
"They offered us a free pass to go back as a family and a $300 meal voucher."
The Sloans felt Aussie World was passing the buck. The theme park said Harry wasn't supervised, but Mr Sloan says he was just seconds away from the boy.
"We really felt like they haven't taken us seriously. They've treated Harry's accident like it was a child that just fell over and scraped their knee or needed a stitch, compared to a child who ended up in hospital for two weeks," Ms Sloan said.
Seven Sharp's initiative and the gesture by Flight Centre means the family can go on a holiday and create some much better memories this time.
"The kindness of people just continues to blow us away, you know, from the support we have around us. So thank you," an emotional Andrew Sloan said.
Mr Sloan said the family just hopes Aussie World acknowledges that someone made an error in the way they designed the metal seat where Harry got burnt and that it can be made better.
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